the speaking tree - Let's Talk About Yoga And Meditation
Discourse: J Krishnamurti
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Let's talk about yoga and meditation. Everybody seems to be terribly interested in yoga.They want to keep young and beautiful. Shall we begin with that? (Laughter). I thought you would be interested in it. (Laughter). Yoga has now become a business affair like everything else. There are teachers of yoga all over the world, and they are coining money , as usual. And yoga at one time I've been told by those who know about this a great deal it was only taught to the very , very, very few.Yoga doesn't mean merely to keep your body healthy , normal, active, and intelligent. It also meant the meaning of that word in Sanskrit means `join together' joining the higher and the lower. I don't know who joins it, but that's the tradition. And also there are various forms of yoga. But the highest form is called Raja Yoga, which is the king of yogas. There that system, or that way of living was concerned not merely with the physical well-being, but also much more psychologically . There was no discipline, no system, nothing to be repeated day after day. But to have a brain that is in order that is all the time active but not chattering, but active, that activity the speaker is interpreting all this. Probably they wouldn't tell you all this.The speaker has talked to various scholars and pundits and real yoga teachers. There are very few of them now.
So to have a very deeply , orderly , moral, ethical life, not just merely perform various postures but to lead a very moral, ethical, disciplined life, that was the real meaning of the highest form of yoga.Thereby you kept the body healthy .Body was not first, was not of primary importance. What was of primary importance was to have a brain, a mind, a well-being, that is clear, active not in the sense of movement, but in itself active, alive, full of vitality. But now it has become rather shallow, profitable and mediocre. We were taught ... the speaker was taught oh, many years ago something that could not be taught to anoth er. Let's leave it at that, shall we? Is that enough talk about yoga?
Could you go into it more?
Krishnamurti: Or you want me to tell you what I was taught? (Laughter) I'm sorry , I can't tell you.(Laughter) It's not to be taught to the casual. It is some thing that you do, perhaps ev ery day as the speaker does for an hour, to have perfect control ur body. So that you are watchful. of your body . So that you are watchful.
I won't use the word `control,' but to watch your body , not make any movement, any gesture, which is not observed. There is no unnecessary movement of the body . But it's not controlled. That's where the difference is.May we drop that subject and go on to something else? I know you are reluctant, because you think, perhaps you may consider yoga to be something to be practised day after day , to develop your muscles, have a muscular body .It's not that at all. It is something you live all day long. Something you watch, observe, and be clear about ... When you see those hills behind there and the blue sky and the line of those mountains against the sky ... for a second, the greatness of the mountain drives away all our pettiness, all our worries and problems and all the travails of life for that second. Then you become silent and look. Right?
(`Meeting Life' Third Public Talk in Ojai, May 1985. Courtesy: KFI)
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So to have a very deeply , orderly , moral, ethical life, not just merely perform various postures but to lead a very moral, ethical, disciplined life, that was the real meaning of the highest form of yoga.Thereby you kept the body healthy .Body was not first, was not of primary importance. What was of primary importance was to have a brain, a mind, a well-being, that is clear, active not in the sense of movement, but in itself active, alive, full of vitality. But now it has become rather shallow, profitable and mediocre. We were taught ... the speaker was taught oh, many years ago something that could not be taught to anoth er. Let's leave it at that, shall we? Is that enough talk about yoga?
Could you go into it more?
Krishnamurti: Or you want me to tell you what I was taught? (Laughter) I'm sorry , I can't tell you.(Laughter) It's not to be taught to the casual. It is some thing that you do, perhaps ev ery day as the speaker does for an hour, to have perfect control ur body. So that you are watchful. of your body . So that you are watchful.
I won't use the word `control,' but to watch your body , not make any movement, any gesture, which is not observed. There is no unnecessary movement of the body . But it's not controlled. That's where the difference is.May we drop that subject and go on to something else? I know you are reluctant, because you think, perhaps you may consider yoga to be something to be practised day after day , to develop your muscles, have a muscular body .It's not that at all. It is something you live all day long. Something you watch, observe, and be clear about ... When you see those hills behind there and the blue sky and the line of those mountains against the sky ... for a second, the greatness of the mountain drives away all our pettiness, all our worries and problems and all the travails of life for that second. Then you become silent and look. Right?
(`Meeting Life' Third Public Talk in Ojai, May 1985. Courtesy: KFI)
Log on to speakingtree.in and post your comments there. Ask you vendor for the Sunday special yoga issue of The Speaking Tree dated June 21.
